The Young Graduates

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes teen movies, 70's driving scenes, psychedelic effects, rock bands with female singers, or just late 60's early 70's youth culture in general. There are some really great freedom feelings you get from this movie - like you can go out and do whatever you want - screw school, screw schedules, screw it all! Just do what you want! You can make it across the state with one nickel in your pocket and still be happy you did it!

The acting is just ok, but that doesn't take away from anything. You soon get into the characters anyway.

This movie has a good amount of driving scenes and 70's nature frolicking scenes along with some happy free-feelin' music. It also has a good amount of teen rebellion. It even has some sex, but it's innocent almost. There's a live band, a psychedelic high school dance, a dunebuggy, a racecar, a motorcycle, cool clothes and cool attitudes. You even have some teacher/student love going on.

If you like love, youth and freedom, then see this movie!!!

Have you ever sat watching a movie when 20 or 30 minutes have gone by and suddenly you realize that you have actually seen the movie before? That happened to me with "The Young Graduates". The cover of the video box, if you can find the video, is extremely deceiving. I'd swear that the two women on the cover aren't even in the film.

Anyway, I was either born a decade too late to appreciate the finer points of this film or...it is simply pointless junk. I'm heavily leaning toward the latter but I guess some out there have developed a connection to this movie.

Hmm...plot. A plot. Let's see...there must be a plot around here somewhere. Nope, I can't find it. It's pretty much about some high school seniors acting dopey and doing drugs and speaking in a language that became outdated decades ago. One of the female students has a crush on her teacher. The teacher has a frigid wife (whom he indeed refers to as an iceberg) so he is receptive to the girl's advances.

There's a lot of driving around and inane dialogue and plenty of spastic dancing. Our cat, BooBoo, was transfixed by the dancing high school kids. She watched with amazing intensity as the dancers gyrated and shook out on the dance floor. It's nice to see that at least one species has found something interesting in this relic. 1/10

A typical exploitation effort from Crown International Pictures, in that it's not particularly exploitational and it has very little to distinguish it from a dozen other similar products. As is the norm for the plotting of these films, the leads are a couple of rebellious college students engaged in various affair with older men, including teachers. When one of them suspects she might be pregnant, the two girls decide to go on a wild road trip of sorts and encounter various people along the way.

This is a low budget production throughout that promises to offer plenty of titillation, although there's hardly any flesh on show aside from one openly gratuitous high school shower scene. No, instead the characters (and viewer) contend with violent motorbike gangs, hippies, and various run-ins with the law. It's all very straightforward stuff, hardly enlivened by below-par acting, although a couple of mildly famous faces like Dennis Christopher and Bruno Kirby have minor roles. As with many Crown productions, it's also entirely missable.

For me, some films get by almost exclusively on their early 70's era vibes. The Young Graduates is such a movie. It has to be said, though, that this isn't a particularly good example of a counter-culture film - it's definitely overlong and its lack of focus doesn't always do it favours. But it remains passably entertaining on account of its sub-genre and era. It's not particularly strong in the story department but for what it's worth it revolves around a teenage girl who starts an affair with one of her teachers; later on, her and her friend set off on a road trip where they encounter various stock and trade characters of the day.

Made by Crown International Pictures at a time when they were producing their most consistently enjoyable output, this is in essence a teen melodrama that turns into a counter-cultural road movie in its second half. As such, amongst other things, it features evil bikers, hippies and a girl-fronted rock band. These are all good ingredients, even if the overall whole is slightly lacking. Events are complimented by a soundtrack of breezy early 70's tunes which certainly added a bit of additional period value to proceedings. I think this one can best be recommended to anyone fascinated by counter-cultural themed movies from the era in which hippies seemed to be around every corner. It is definitely a very minor and uneven example of this kind of thing though to be fair.

Although THE YOUNG GRADUATES was apparently filmed in 1971, it didn't play theatrically in Seattle until 1973, when it was shown as the co-feature with CLASS OF '44. It is a picaresque story of two cute teenage girls who have just graduated from high school. Patricia Wymer stars as Mindy, a precocious and beautiful blonde who's ripe for adventure. The film follows her many counter-culture activities as she enjoys an affair with a slightly older teacher while still hanging out with bikers, hippies, dopers, etc. The two girls themselves don't do drugs, other than sharing a spiked birthday cake with some hippies.

The film presents some young talent who later became famous, such as Bruno Kirby and Dennis Christopher. A special shout out must be added for the great girl group Pat Russell's The Spare Change, who are seen playing rock and roll in some high school dance scenes. They were one of the first girl groups to play their own instruments, although there are a couple of male sidemen as well. One of the film's cinematographers was John Toll, who later won Oscars for BRAVEHEART and THE THIN RED LINE.

Although a bit corny now, the film remains as a wonderful period piece that reflects the early 1970s youth culture. Although there is a bit of nudity, the film is surprisingly non-exploitative and non-judgmental about its subject matter. THE YOUNG GRADUATES was released on DVD on January 6th, 2009, as part of the BCI box set DRIVE-IN CULT CLASSICS VOL. 4 (available through Amazon.com, and Best Buy's website as well).